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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “foundry”

wp.org orders by popularity, so a plugin a host bundled onto millions of sites, or a big-brand one that's slow and mediocre, can sit at the top. Our ranking is built to answer a different question: which of these is actually worth installing. How this works →

For “foundry”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 3 of the top 20.

wp.org search ranks on

Install count (uncapped), the raw star average, freshness, and support. Popularity dominates, so the biggest install base usually wins regardless of how it got there.

We add

A cap on the install boost, volume-weighted ratings, and signals wp.org can't see: whether it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Auto Thumbnail Generator shows at wp.org #11 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 4 places. Its 10+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Code Block Pro – Beautiful Syntax Highlighting places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 50 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 FileBird – WordPress Media Library Folders & File Manager 200K+ · 4.7★ (1125) wp.org #1 2 MaxButtons – Create buttons 70K+ · 4.9★ (1093) wp.org #2 3 Happyforms – Form Builder for WordPress: Drag & Drop Contact Forms, Surveys, Payments & Multipurpose Forms 20K+ · 4.4★ (433) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Social Share Buttons 1K+ · 4.8★ (28) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 CatFolders – WordPress Media Library Folders & Categories 6K+ · 4.3★ (22) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Simple Ebook Viewer 400+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 iFolders – Ultimate Folder Organizer for Media Library, Pages, Posts and Users 300+ · 4.6★ (11) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 Code Block Pro – Beautiful Syntax Highlighting 10K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #24 ↓1 16 too low 9 F Foundry Helper — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 3 too high 10 Layout Foundry Quantities — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 2 too high 11 AI Provider for Azure AI Foundry — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 2 too high 12 B Bot Foundry — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 13 RTM Font Showcase — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↑1 14 Variable Font Sampler 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓1 15 Auto Thumbnail Generator 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 4 too high 16 LioX Web Translation Engine with Microsoft Azure Translator for TranslatePress — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 1 too high 17 TillFoundry Scheduler Watchdog — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 1 too high 18 ByteCoreStack – Cache Invalidation for Amazon CloudFront — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 KOZ Static Translate — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 ProductLift: Feedback, Roadmap, Changelog, Knowledge Base — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 1 too high 21 Rewind Form Bridge for Brevo — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 1 too high 22 AeroIDX – Real Estate IDX Search, MLS Listings & Lead Capture — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 Nexo ARG for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 1 too high 24 ZeroBeep Crypto Gateway for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓1 1 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian score and a Wilson lower bound, and keeps wp.org's own freshness and compatibility decays. Method from the plugin-directory source; see Meta Trac #8298. Positions are tracked daily from the first visit to a keyword, so the small arrows show movement since tracking began.